Margot Serra
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margotserra.bsky.social
Margot Serra
@margotserra.bsky.social
Bioarchaeologist, archaeologist, PhD student at the University of Cambridge, research interests include osteobiography, paleopathology, isotope analyses, funerary archaeology of Pre-Columbian Peru (current project - Preceramic Period, South Coast, Peru)
Reposted by Margot Serra
Reposted by Margot Serra
📰 New research shows how the people of the ancient Peruvian city of Caral survived a climate catastrophe, adapting and moving rather than resorting to violence

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Archaeologists discover how oldest American civilisation survived a climate catastrophe
Experts find artefacts left behind in Caral showing how population survived drought without resorting to violence
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
🚨 New paper out!

This work combines 3D geometric morphometrics, multivariate statistics, and machine learning to assess sexual dimorphism in great ape long bones — aiming to classify unsexed skeletal remains and reveal patterns relevant to human evolution.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
External Long Bone Morphology as a Tool for Sex Identification in Great Apes: The Case of the Humerus and Femur
Objectives Sexual dimorphism in primates reflects evolutionary, ecological, and social pressures and varies widely across species, complicating its analysis. This study builds on previous research t.....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 11, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
"Despite the extensive looting, Marcus and her team were able to recover a remarkably diverse and well-preserved assemblage of artefacts... demonstrating the wealth of material and thus information that can still be recovered from highly looted contexts." 2/2

✍️ Reviewed by @margotserra.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Happy and honoured to share this paper with @ercrema.bsky.social about pottery in Early Holocene Africa! Check out more in the thread!
October 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
The recreated head and reconstructed skull of Shanidar Z, a Neanderthal originally buried in Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan around 75,000 years ago.

The crushed skull was rebuilt from hundreds of bone fragments by a team of archaeologists and conservators led by the University of Cambridge 🏺
April 26, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
I'm beyond excited to share our new paper in Nature! We sequenced the first ancient human autosomal genomes from the Central Sahara, two ~7,000-year-old individuals from Takarkori in Libya, revealing a long-isolated North African lineage: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here's a short thread: (1/n)
Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage - Nature
Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.
www.nature.com
April 2, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
@margotserra.bsky.social working with the co-director of the Samaca Archaeological Project, George Chauca, in the field last summer, excavating the burial of a child discovered at a Preceramic site located at the mouth of the Rio Ica, south coast of Peru. (Credit: Dr. David Beresford Jones)
March 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
‼️Very excited to share that our paper on settlement patterns and land use in Etruria is finally out on JAS: Reports! You can find it here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...
March 1, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.
December 26, 2024 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Only one month to go until the symposium "From Anatomy to Behaviour: Challenges and Solutions in Studying Hominin Postcranial Evolution" ☺️

Sign up to attend in person, or contact us to join online.

Find more info here: 👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/from-anato...
December 16, 2024 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Anastasia Chrysanthi Solomou
Fragmentary data and scattered lands: a recording protocol for a comparative archaeothanatological analysis based on archaeological illustrations
doi.org/10.4000/12kyz
Fragmentary data and scattered lands: a recording protocol for a co...
Introduction Introductory remarks The Cyclades are a cluster of approximately 220 islands (figure 1), and although only 25 are inhabited today, current research observations suggest various pattern...
doi.org
December 2, 2024 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
I have started to compile a Starter Pack for those researching children and childhood in the past 👋 Do let me know if you’d like to be included! Hopefully we can grow this list as more people move to BlueSky🦋 #Archaeology #ChildhoodArchaeology @sscipchildhood.bsky.social go.bsky.app/TyZAyQ8
November 18, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Started up a bioarch starter pack 🤩
Let me know if you want to be added or have suggestions 😊
#archaeology #bioarchaeology

go.bsky.app/N5yfURb
November 17, 2024 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Two PhD Studentships in the Archaeology of Later Pastoralism in Kenya, inclusing one focussing on #stableIsotopes and #zooarchaeology, at Cambridge University (starting October 2025): www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49439/ #jobalert #PhDpositions
Two PhD Studentships in the Archaeology of Later Pastoralism in Kenya - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Two PhD Studentships in the Archaeology of Later Pastoralism in Kenya in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
December 9, 2024 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
🚩Dans notre dernier numéro, focus sur le dimorphisme sexuel de la base du crâne avec l'article publié par Alexandra Boucherie, qui a reçu pour ses travaux de thèse le prix de la SAP 2023!
Alexandra Boucherie
Analysis of the sexual dimorphism of metric variables of the cranial base: Archaeo-anthropological and forensic implications doi.org/10.4000/12fjm
Analyse du dimorphisme sexuel de variables métriques de la base du crâne : intérêts archéo-anthropologiques et forensiques
Analysis of the sexual dimorphism of metric variables of the crania...
Prix de la SAP 2023 / SAP prize 2023 General introduction When dealing with human remains recovered from either archaeological or forensic contexts, the main task of the anthropologist is to establ...
doi.org
December 10, 2024 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Margot Serra
They’re not exactly baffled (it’s ritual!), but still a cool study.🏺🧪
Strange pile of Stone Age skulls unearthed in Italian village baffles archaeologists
At least 15 human skulls at a Neolithic site in Italy may represent the group's collective ancestors, although archaeologists aren't certain.
www.livescience.com
December 4, 2024 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by Margot Serra
Great to see BABAO making an impact and maybe some progress on the sale of human remains in the UK.

www.patrickpester.com/post/mp-call...
MP calls for government to ban human remains sales: A deep dive
An MP has called on the government to ban the sale of human remains. Here's what happened and why it matters.
www.patrickpester.com
November 26, 2024 at 9:16 AM